Sunday, 11 September 2005

Robin Hood Half

So the day arrived, up early for porridge and then off to pick up Little Miss Happy and mark.

Threats of repeats of last year's traffic congestion failed to materialise, so we arrived at the start way to early - plenty of time for loos and a retail opportunity.

Although lots of forumites had arranged to meet at the baggage tent ( a HUGE marquee), so had everyone else, so if you did not know what someone looked like, you were not about to find out!

We did meet micknphil, Mava, Trinity (great to meet her and she did a great marathon time too), another forumite whose name I did not catch, hammerite and Space Cadet, and then Red Haired Girl and Sam.

I also managed to meet up with TP and her friend and also an ex-colleague of LMH. We were all planning a slow run so congregated at the back of the pack.

So the race, started off steadily, forgetting how much up there was in this early part of the race - not hilly eveyone told me, but to an overweight slow peep they felt like hills to me!

I tried to stick with my run a mile walk a minute strategy, but the hills left me with no alternative but to walk a little - AHR still well above BT in these early miles.

S out of town and into Woollaton Park - a pleasant change from city streets. Coming out of the park we should begin to feel the benefit of all that climbing with some nice downhill bits, but the first twinges of cramp begin to arrive. Just a rippling through my calf muscles and ignored by me.

At this point (mile 8-9) I catch up with TP who has been run walking and now walking, not quickly, with someone she has met. TP says her HR went through the roof and stabbing pains in her head have slowed her to a walk. I find I am walking faster than her and we soon separate.

However when some real down arrives and I want to jog away, the cramp really kicks in, I try stretching but no difference, as soon as I go from walk to jog I cannot move at all.

So I settle for a brisk walk - and as you can see from mile 9 my pace drops a bit and my HR a lot!

Occasional attemps to jog bring back the pain, so its essentially a walk for the last 4 miles :

But my brisk walk is enough to give me the psychological boost of passing people :>)

I try to jog for the cameras in the last mile, but end up hopping - but not knowing which leg to hop on!

LMH and mark were in the home straight to greet me and encourage me to the end (thanks guys) - but I just couldn't run.

Lots of cheers as I came down the home straight - but not for me - the 3 hour marathoners were coming in too!

after the raceCollected my medal and goody bag - ate the sorreen bar immediately - and off to meet up with LMH, mark, RHG and Sam.

Off to the pub for lunch and a good natter - RHG and Sam go off to Australia in 10 days - we'll miss them.

As an added bonus Muzzy turned up at the pub - having marhsalled MOB for the week he then did a stint marshalling the marathon!

2 hours later, walking back to the car the marathoners were still coming in

so the numbers

Mile

Pace

AHR

time

1

12:59

165

12:59

2

13:59

152

26:58

3

13:08

156

40:06

4

13:38

160

53:44

5

1312

159

1:06:56

6

14:08

150

1:21:04

7

14:34

152

1:35:38

8

13:08

157

1:48:46

9

15:13

140

2:03:59

10

13:35

146

2:17:34

11

14:46

140

2:32:20

12

15:23

133

2:47:43

13

15:07

134

3:02:50

13.1

3:06:25

stats are from garmin, final time is from chip time - forgot to switch it off at the end!!

Post mortem

So how to prevent cramp?

Several thoughts occur to me

the only other time I had it was from about mile 10 at Brass Monkey - there I used a gel for the first time and maybe not enough water

no problem with cramps at FLM - just ran out of steam then - drank plenty it was much hotter

I probably did not drink enough water yesterday or on Saturday - I really don't like the gels SiS Go - must try something different

I did not get enough sleep on Friday night or Saturday

and I had not put in the miles before hand

Windsor in 2 weeks

HELP

edit .....

is this the cause?

not sure how much credence to put on the garmin HRM - though I have been using it and sticking to 148 max in training - so maybe the cramps were the dreaded lactic acid??

8 comments:

damn good times for walking! Well done! and well done for sticking with it! Try High 5 gels - I think they are the best! Hydration is reallyimportant - that's probably what got you.Well done though{{beanz}}

beanz well done you. It doesnt sound like it was an easy one. You did a very wise thing though and listened to your body and walked when you needed to. Time is really good for someone who went through that and had to walk.

I'd say dehydration is very likely the cause of the cramps. The HR spikes though - odd! - maybe your chest strap isn't tight enough? Losses of contact as you're running might be adding extra beats to your pulse? I get this when I haven't warmed up and the contact is too dry, but it settles down once I'm sweating. I imagine you had no problem sweating ;-)